


I will go down fighting (myself)

by WildChaser



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Banter, Bullying, First Kiss, Gen, IED, M/M, Noses are broken, Protective Theo, Theo saves the day, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-31 15:45:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12684918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildChaser/pseuds/WildChaser
Summary: The war has ended, but some people still can't let go of their anger.Liam gets to experience it first hand and struggles to keep his wolf at bay. But how long can he keep his head down when the violence doesn't seem to stop? How much can be endured before somebody does something unforgiveable?Theo is not willing to wait idly so he takes matters in his own hands.





	I will go down fighting (myself)

**Author's Note:**

> Big thanks to ExtraSteps for beta-reading! :)
> 
> Enjoy :)

Liam knew that with his IED he might not be perceived as the most reliable member of the McCall pack, but never did he suspect it may come this far. And yet here he was, sitting on his own couch, in his own house, while the pack – and his parents, god dammit! – were all gathered around him, holding a friggin’ intervention.

The old pack was mostly out of town, only Scott still lingered in Beacon Hills when it happened, but even if he wasn’t, he would have come back anyways. It was too serious to discuss by phone. Other than Scott, there was only Mason, Corey and his parents, but it still felt like too many people.

The fact that earlier this morning Liam’s parents had been called to the school, because some students had been found beaten to a bloody pulp in the locker room might have something to do with this situation. However, the fact remains that…

“Guys, for the last time, I had nothing to do with it,” repeated Liam for what felt like the thousandth time in the last fifteen minutes. His resigned tone of voice showed that he didn’t even hope that somebody would change their mind – it seemed like everyone had already decided who was at fault.

“Liam, come on, just stop it.” Scott almost begged him, clearly frustrated by this whole ordeal. Liam knew none of them wanted to do that, stand in front of him, basically judge his actions and discipline him, but that’s exactly what was happening anyways. “They had claw marks on them.”

This statement just pissed Liam off, but he tried to keep his temper on a tight leash. Neither the pack nor his parents needed to see him lose control right now, it would prove exactly the opposite of what he was trying to tell them – and Liam really didn’t want these people to trust him even less, if that’s even possible after today’s incident.

“I know, Scott, you’ve mentioned it like thirteen times already!” Hissed Liam, because even if he didn’t lose his temper, something needed to be said in response to Scott’s bullshit accusations. “But it doesn’t make me any guiltier, I’m not the only werewolf in this town.”

The silence that followed his words was horrible, because Liam could tell that all these people still thought he’d done that and were simply frustrated by his stubbornness. What was absolutely the worst was that even Mason… while he looked uncomfortable and worried, still stood on the intervention side. Liam’s parents were also present, but Liam couldn’t really blame them for the distressed looks they gave him. Really, they just found out about the supernatural side of Beacon Hills a couple weeks ago. Admittedly, they took it quite well, but began worrying a lot more about Liam’s IED ever since. This is understandable, because Liam could be violent as a human, and him being a werewolf only amplified those outbursts of anger. He was dangerous before, after the bite he could be lethal.  

Which didn’t change the simple fact that He. Did. Not. Do. It.

“Liam, we just want to help you,” assured Scott. “But you cannot let the wolf side take control like that, even if… somebody causes you trouble.”

And that, that is simply unfair, thinks Liam, squeezing himself into the couch even more, as if it could help him escape the stares.

“Awesome”, he replied dryly. “So, we’re talking about it now.” He let out a shallow breath. “Who told you?”

Unexpectedly, it was his stepfather who replied.

“Actually, we did,” he said. “The headmaster at your school mentioned that those boys might have… bullied you.”

Liam really didn’t want to be rude, but he snorted at his words anyway.

“Mentioned? Bullied?” He repeated incredulously. “Woah, how very observant of him.”

The sardonic comment hung in the air for a moment, but Scott broke the silence.

“Even so, Liam, that’s not how you should deal with such problems.”

Liam gritted his teeth and glared at Scott.

“Well then, oh mighty Alpha, please enlighten me!” Liam raised his chin defiantly and opened his arms, as if waiting for explanation. “What was I supposed to do? Visit a school counselor?!” He mocked openly, making everyone flinch at sheer mention of Monroe.

“You could have gone to any teacher, Liam. The Anuk-Ite is gone, they are not so blindly afraid of us anymore.” Scotts voice was stern, parental, and Liam was done with Scott’s naïve philosophy.

“Well, you’re right, they are just slightly less-blindly afraid of us, so that’s wonderful.” Liam’s eyes began to hurt from the amount of eye rolling he did during this conversation. On the other hand, he never thought he could be that sarcastic, but let’s face it – he never thought he would end up in such a situation either.

“Wake up, Scott,” Liam added more seriously this time. “The teachers knew. And they. Did. Nothing. You heard my parents, right?” Liam snorted again. “The headmaster mentioned that I might have been bullied… as if all they did was trip me up or spill soda all over me!”

That last sentence made all the people raise their eyebrows with worry, and Scott was not an exception. Apparently, he, Mason and Corey remembered all too well what Gabe and Nolan did to him during the war. Thankfully, his parents were spared that view and now they only looked around with confusion.

“What did these boys do to you?” Asked his mother finally, as if being afraid of what she may hear. And this one question hung in the air for a moment, when all the people holding the intervention realized that they might have started it from the wrong end.

Liam also stayed quiet, suddenly not so outspoken. His fists tightened, but it didn’t look like he was holding back his anger. The white knuckles, tightly-pressed lips and round shoulders also pointed towards a different emotion. Nervousness. Apprehension. A tiny spark of fear and even tiniest spark of embarrassment.

“Doesn’t matter now, does it?” Liam finally managed a quiet reply, and then he added with a bit more power to his voice: “They probably won’t do it again, after all.”

Which, on second thought, might not have been the best comment in that particular situation, realized Liam when all the looks turned from worried to disappointed in a split second.  But that was also the whole point here – they expected him to feel guilty, they believed he should show some remorse for his behavior, for succumbing to his IED; and saw nothing of the sort. Firstly, because he wouldn’t admit to the deed. Secondly, because even if he had not been at fault, he should have felt bad for the boys. Or, at the very least, he shouldn’t express his vindictiveness so openly.

Well, Liam might have felt bad if the situation concerned anyone but them. Which doesn’t mean they got off easy. Oh no, they wouldn’t leave hospital for quite some time, and even after that they would spend a lot of money on implanting fake front teeth. Also, they would probably need some screws to keep their jaws in place for a while. The poetic cherry on top for Liam was the fact that their legs were all broken in four or five places, which would heal, but it was going to be a long and painful process.

It didn’t make him look less guilty when he wasn’t able to fake sympathy for them convincingly enough. But hell, Liam was no actor and pretending to be sorry wasn’t easy when all he actually felt was relief. Also, let’s be clear, the motherfuckers got exactly what they deserved, no less. Liam sensibly refrained from saying that comment out loud, but he was sure he had it written all over his face with capital letters.

“Liam, their parents’ will probably go to the police with that. You need to come clear now, otherwise it will be much harder for us to help you,” came the voice of reason from his stepfather. Liam appreciated the fact that, while still believing he had beaten up those guys, his stepdad wanted to fight for him. However, Liam would appreciate it more if he simply believed his word.

“Then let them go to the police,” Liam replied defiantly, folding his arms across his chest. “Cause I did not do it and the police won’t be able to prove otherwise. Because It. Did. Not. Happen.” He added though the gritted teeth.

His stepdad sighed in defeat and asked at last:

“If you didn’t do it, maybe you know who did? Or maybe at least suspect somebody?”

And then Liam froze. His heart skipped a beat, which Scott noticed at once.

“You know who did it!” Realized Scott loudly, his eyes widening in surprise. “Why didn’t you tell right from the start?”

Liam huffed shortly.

“It’s not like you even asked before,” he observed coldly. “And I don’t know who did it,” he added as an afterthought.

Scott looked at him in confusion.

“Liam, but you know I can hear you’re lying.”

 “Yeah.” Liam just shrugged. “But that’s going to be my official version anyway. So, don’t bother asking.” And his voice was firm, showing that it wasn’t something he decided to do on the spur of the moment.

 

Suddenly, a new voice rang from the window. The window, which suddenly was open.

“Hey, little wolf, you don’t have to protect me, you know.”

Liam recognized the voice immediately and cursed not-so-subtly under his breath.

Theo closed the window after himself and even tucked the curtain back as it was before. Then he turned back and faced six confused stares. “It’s not like I’m going to knock,” he commented unapologetically with his trademark smirk.

“What the hell are you doing here, Theo?” Asked Scott, because he was the first to shrug off the surprise.

“You should really take care of your little beta a bit better, Scott.” Began Theo with a condescending tone. “You haven’t been a good Alpha lately, seriously, I’m disappointed.” It didn’t sound so mockingly as Theo wanted it to be. There was a note of actual disappointment there, but maybe only Liam’s well-practiced ear was able to pick it up. And Liam wasn’t going to advertise that he was getting good at reading Theo’s voice.  

“What do you mean?” Asked Scott and he wasn’t as dismissive as Theo expected. Scott asked as if he actually wanted to Theo to tell him. Well, if that was the case, Theo could do better than just tell.  

 

 

 § _a few days earlier_ §

 

 

The first time it happened, Theo just wanted to be an asshole. That’s it, swear to the non-existent God. He wasn’t sure himself what he was doing at school long after school hours – especially that he wasn’t even a student there. Actually, he was checking up on Liam, who stayed inside suspiciously long, even though all his friends had gone home already. Theo just wasn’t sure why he was checking up on Liam, but that’s another story completely. He might have been ~~stalking~~ keeping tabs on the little beta since the war ended, which was a behavior he couldn’t explain rationally even to himself, let alone to anybody else. Theo just… felt better knowing where Liam was. Calmer. More stable. As if Liam’s presence was somehow keeping him grounded in reality. Thinking of Liam also helped Theo keep the nightmares away. It didn’t work every night, unfortunately, but once every few nights was also a satisfying achievement.

Anyway, he ventured towards the locker rooms and heard them. A couple of teenage boys, sixteen or seventeen years old, yelling some slurs and obscenities at somebody lying on the ground, taunting that person viciously.

“What, you think we’re scared of you?!” Yelled a slender, brown-haired boy while giving the person a brutal kick in the stomach. “Just look at you! Pathetic! Come on, wolfie, growl at me! You know you can stop us! Don’t hold back!” Teased the teen, kicking again and again.

As Theo came closer, he noticed Liam lying on the floor, his whole face covered in fresh blood and his nose broken in at least two places. Theo supposed it was hard to break a nose more times than that, but apparently the guys were really persistent in their trials.

Theo wasn’t really concerned about this situation. Liam was a werewolf after all, he could surely handle a couple of teenage human boys with one of his hands tied behind his back. So, Theo just decided to stay hidden and wait for Liam’s shift. Maybe only then would he enter the scene and make sure Liam doesn’t mess any of them too badly. On second thought, Theo took his phone out and started recording the situation, just in case… ~~you know, Liam got into trouble for defending himself and needed something to back up his version~~ Liam got too cocky and needed a visible reminder of his fragile self-control, with which Theo could tease him later.

So, Theo recorded the gruesome scene happening in front of his eyes, waiting for Liam’s shift, which… never happened. Liam just stayed down, gritted “Go to hell” and “Fuck off” once or twice and curled himself to protect his internal organs and his head.

“Oh no! You don’t get to make a martyr of yourself, you beast! Show your true colors!” Shouted another teen, grabbing Liam’s hair violently and forcing the werewolf to look up at him. “That’s for Gabe!” The boy hit Liam’s jaw with his knee, making Liam’s head bounce off the lockers with a thud. When Liam didn’t respond, just stayed with his back propped up on the lockers, breathing heavily but otherwise silent, the teens just kicked him couple more times.

“We’ll get back to this conversation, Dunbar,” they threatened vaguely, grabbed their bags and left, which actually surprised Theo, because why would they stop if they didn’t achieve what they had come for? Liam didn’t change, did he? Wasn’t it what they wanted?

Theo left that thread of thought for a while, observing Liam instead. The werewolf wasn’t quick to get up, quite the contrary. He breathed loudly for couple minutes, as if trying to calm himself down. When his breath stabilized, he just sat with his legs stretched in front of him and slowly raised his hands to inspect them for injuries. Slowly the minor cuts began healing themselves and some bruises faded before they even fully came out.

That’s when Theo decided to step out of shadows. Liam immediately raised his head, his eyes widening in surprise. Theo raised his eyebrow seeing this reaction.

“You didn’t know I was here?” He asked, taken aback.

Liam looked embarrassed. “I was a bit preoccupied, as you can see. What the hell were you even doing here? Enjoying the show, huh?” He snarled, wiping some blood from under his nose. Which didn’t really help, since he had plenty of blood on every other part of his face too.

Theo slowly came closer and hunkered down beside Liam.

“More like wondering why you let them beat you up like that.” He said quietly as he took note of Liam’s injuries. Apart from the extensive bruising on his face, it seemed like he had at least one of his wrists broken too. A second later the wrist healed with a snap that almost made Theo cringe.

“If I had let the werewolf take over, they wouldn’t have been able to walk out of here like that,” murmured Liam and tried to get up, but then growled in pain and put an arm around his stomach. Blood spouted from his mouth right onto Theo’s T-shirt.

“Dude.” Theo rolled his eyes in irritation, looking at his clothes in disgust.  

“Sorry,” mumbled Liam, not sounding particularly apologetic though. “It was dirty anyway.” He added as an afterthought.

“Was not,” denied Theo immediately, which means Liam probably hit a sore spot.

“Was too.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“And yet you’re here,” observed Liam and it made Theo shut up and look away for a moment. On second thought, Liam actually didn’t mean to say it like that. Like Theo was here because… he cared about him or something. It was ridiculous. But on the other hand, Liam couldn’t come up with any other plausible explanation for Theo’s presence. Either that, or he was just a creepy stalker; but even that had to stem from something.

“So what,” said Theo suddenly, his voice steady, as if the unexpected change in the atmosphere between them never happened at all, “you’re going to just let them beat the shit out of you, because you are afraid of your wolf?”

Liam just sighed.

“They will get bored eventually. And if I lose it, the people will never let me live it down.”

Theo huffed in disapproval, but didn’t comment on this plan.

“Can you stand up?” He asked finally, standing up himself and extending a helpful hand towards Liam. Liam took it without delay, which probably said a lot about the development of their relationship. From enemies to reluctant allies, that is.

Liam definitely did not look briefly at Theo’s mouth, thus missing Theo instinctively doing the same thing.

“Thanks,” muttered Liam and cleared this throat awkwardly, taking a step away from Theo before things got even weirder between them.

“Don’t let them do it again, little wolf. It’s not healthy,” said Theo finally, turned away and walked out of school, ignoring Liam’s shout:

“Don’t call me that, asshole!”

 

 §

 

 

The next time Theo saw a similar situation happened maybe two or three days later. And had he been any less vigilant, he might have come too late. Fortunately, Liam’s tormentors weren’t trying to be quiet in the slightest, especially not to the chimera’s enhanced sense of hearing.

Theo followed the voices carefully, not really certain of whether he wanted to get involved or not. But as he entered one of the smaller alleyways near Liam’s school and took in the scene playing in front of his eyes, Theo lost all his inhibitions at once.

Liam looked basically the same as did had those couple days ago, as if he hadn’t healed at all. Crushed nose, blood flowing down his face, his lip split in two places, and that was just the description of his face. The rest wasn’t much better, but clothes made the wounds less obvious. But Theo saw the healing with his own eyes, and that meant Liam got injured anew. By the same people, who repeated the same threats again and again, apparently beating Liam with total impunity.

Theo saw red when one of the guys grabbed Liam by the throat and slammed the wolf into the nearest wall, raising him up with all the force he mustered. And suddenly, just like that, Liam was out of air. His hands grabbed the arm that was holding him, the claws immediately out and drawing blood as they pierced deeply though the boy’s skin.

The boy screamed in a way that would put a five year old girl to shame, dropping the grip on Liam’s throat and jumping away from the werewolf in panic. His companions, in a show of exceptional manhood and bravery, turned around, running away as quickly as their wobbly legs allowed them to.  They passed Theo, paying barely any attention to him, and Theo let them. He, on the contrary, paid plenty of attention to them and encoded their faces deeply in his own memory.

But there was no time for pettiness, realized Theo as he looked up at Liam. Despite the teens being gone, Liam was still not okay. As soon as the grip on his throat loosened, Liam’s legs gave up underneath him and he slid down the wall to the ground. His eyes, though they went yellow for a second, got blue again. The claws also changed back into regular nails way faster than Theo would expect.

But worst of all, Liam still couldn’t catch his breath. His eyelids fluttered, as if he was unable to keep them open for a moment, and when he finally managed it again, his eyes were filled with pure panic. Liam saw Theo running towards him, but his thoughts only concerned the air he was lacking. Liam’s chest seemed on fire, heavy and screaming for him to take in some oxygen. And Liam tried, opened his mouth in desperation, but it didn’t work.

Theo fell on his knees next to Liam and grabbed the beta’s face in his hands, making Liam look at him.

“Liam, calm the fuck down!” He screamed, his heart thumping loudly. Why was Liam not healing?! Why couldn’t he breathe?! His windpipe wasn’t crushed, and even if it was, it should have taken only a few seconds to fix! “Stop panicking! Liam!” Yelled Theo, but his words didn’t seem to get to the beta. Liam’s face paled more and more with every passing second, and Theo had no idea what to do. He summoned his inner wolf, growled loudly glaring with his yellow eyes at the beta: “HEAL!” He ordered, trying to prompt Liam’s wolf to come out to the surface. But Liam looked like he didn’t even notice Theo’s transformation, still immersed in his panic attack.

Theo remembered the problem with Scott’s eyes and the way Malia helped him heal. He heard of Lydia doing the same for Stiles some time ago. But it was useless in this situation, that was no answer for him!

“Liam! LIAM! You have to heal! CHANGE, GOD DAMMIT!” Theo shook Liam by the shoulders, feeling his own panic raising in his gut. He had to get to Liam somehow! It was such a stupid situation! Liam wasn’t even really hurt! He just couldn’t snap out of the panic attack, and such a thing was meant to be the cause of his death?! “LIAM, you idiot! LET YOUR WOLF HEAL YOU!” Screamed Theo from the top of his lungs, and yet to no avail.

Liam was lost in his terror, afraid of his wolf, but also terrified of dying. And somewhere in the back of his mind he felt the darkness closing up on him, approaching faster and faster with every breath he was unable to take. The world became blurry around the edges first, but soon Liam’s whole vision got fuzzy. Liam heard Theo, heard his screams and desperately tried to follow the advice, but the wolf was nowhere to be found.

“Liam! Come on! Liam! Don’t…! You can’t…!” Theo was getting more and more desperate as Liam’s face began losing its color and the wolf’s head began relaying on Theo’s hands more and more, when Liam lost most of his strength to keep it up on his own. “LIAM! YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKER!” Theo’s grip tightened, one hand on Liam’s cheek and the other holding his head from the back.

The wolf closed his eyes and didn’t open them again, even though he tried once or twice. His lips began turning violet when it hit Theo as a ton of bricks.

Soon, it was going to be too late.

 

And suddenly everything stopped. Liam’s head became less clouded, yet remained empty all the same. The panic was gone, the air became accessible again and Liam’s lungs filled with oxygen coming though his nose. And slowly Liam began becoming aware of the situation around him. His heart was still thumping in his chest, not having calmed down after the panic yet. His head was held by Theo’s hands. And Liam’s own hands were hanging loosely along his sides, which suddenly seemed really inappropriate. Theo broke the kiss and slowly moved away his face, but still stayed pretty close.

Liam slowly raised his right hand and touched his own lips, shock painted on his face. “What…?” He asked weakly, looking up at Theo, who wasn’t even embarrassed that much.

“Didn’t think it would work,” admitted Theo, relief clear in his voice.

That’s when Liam realized that Theo had kissed him. It was such a ridiculous thought at first that he almost dismissed it, but then he noticed his lips were still… slightly swollen. And tasted like… well, probably that’s how Theo tasted like. Which was actually… not completely terrible.

“You in there, Liam?” Theo took his hand off Liam’s cheek and waved it in front of Liam’s eyes. Liam blinked a couple times, coming back to his senses fully.

“You kissed me.” Observed Liam sternly, totally at loss about how to react.

Theo shrugged.

“I ran out of other ideas.” He slowly let go of the back of Liam’s head and moved away a bit more, giving the beta more space. Only then did Liam realize how intimate and close they had been sitting just a second before.

“I had a panic attack?” Asked Liam, trying to make sense of what had happened.

“You…” Theo suddenly cut off his own words, apparently getting lost in his own thoughts for a moment. “You’re an idiot, Liam!” He scolded Liam finally.

Liam looked at Theo in surprise. “Wha…?”

“You are so afraid of your wolf that you basically let them beat you to death!” Yelled Theo, standing up suddenly.

“What was I supposed to do, then?!” Hissed Liam, quickly getting equally angry. “I didn’t want to kill anybody!”

“Well, maybe you should have! Maybe they deserved it!” Snapped Theo back.

Liam’s injuries started healing a while ago, so he was able to stand up, which he slowly did, and glared at Theo in response.

“I don’t want to become a murderer, Theo.”

“It’s better than getting yourself killed!”

“Maybe for you!”

Liam lost control of his tongue and immediately regretted it. He could only watch as Theo’s face stilled and suddenly all emotions were gone from it.

Unexpectedly, he smashed his fist into Liam’s nose.

Liam fell to the ground again, only managing to yell ‘fuck’ in the air.

“Maybe ask your own parents what they would prefer,” suggested Theo icily, “Their son killing somebody in FUCKING SELF-DEFENSE, or burying him at sixteen!”

Theo turned around and left Liam in the alleyway, alone with his healing nose.

 

 §

 

 

_“What do you mean?” Asked Scott and he wasn’t as dismissive as Theo expected. Scott asked as if he actually wanted to Theo to tell him. Well, if that was the case, Theo could do better than just tell._

 

Theo was pretty sure it wasn’t just the game of lights and Scott actually turned a bit green after he saw the recording.

“Oh, you think that’s bad?” Asked Theo in a mocking tone. “You should have seen what they’ve done to Liam yesterday. You all made him so fucking scared of his IED that he’s terrified of letting his wolf loose. And that almost killed him yesterday!” Growled Theo, eyeing the people in the room with disdain. “If I hadn’t…,” he begun, but cut himself off suddenly.

Scott heard his hesitation and immediately got interested.

“If you hadn’t – what?”

Theo’s looked briefly at Liam and their eyes met for a second. Liam’s face was hard to decipher for the chimera, so he went with the pre-prepared lie.

“Taken his pain.” Finished Theo calmly, and what’s more important, convincingly. “It helped him snap out of panic.”

“You don’t need to be ashamed that you can do it now,” said Mason, probably mistaking his hesitation for a sign of embarrassment. “It’s a good thing.”

“Well, thank you,” replied Theo somewhat ironically. “But I also don’t need you acting as my therapist, though your input is – not exactly appreciated, but - duly noted.”

“Oh, shut up, Theo”, hissed Liam, not feeling really angry at the chimera, but just not wanting to endure the quarrel between him and Mason.

Theo’s mouth actually snapped shut, even though he threw Liam a disapproving glare.

“So, you’re trying to say that… it was you who beat those guys?” Scott repeated slowly, getting back to the main point of this discussion.

“Brilliant deduction, Sherlock.” Theo rolled his eyes, but then sobered and added a bit more seriously: “In my defense, they had it coming. And I actually wanted to do to them everything they did to Liam, but, you know, seeing that _it would probably kill them_ , I settled for like… half of it?”

Scott glared at Theo and gritted his teeth. He couldn’t deny the facts that were staring him right in the fact, that is that Liam’s IED suddenly put him on the other side of danger than it previously did. It became dangerous to Liam’s health, not those around him. And Theo was right, it couldn’t stay that way.

Scott sighed and turned to face Liam.

“I’m sorry.” He said, and meant it. “I should have trusted you.”

Liam also sighed and shrugged. “It’s okay, I mean, it seemed probable and we hadn’t always seen eye to eye.”

Scott was still distressed though. “It doesn’t change the fact that I jumped to conclusions way too quickly. It was a shitty thing to do.”

Liam huffed under his nose. “Well, it was.” No point in denying what was obvious.  

“Liam…” Began Mason tentatively, probably trying to tell him the same thing.

“Not now,” cut him Liam off immediately. Mason’s distrust in him stung way more than Scott’s, so Liam didn’t feel like dealing with his friend at least for the next couple hours. “Just… go.” He added, looking at Mason and Corey. The latter didn’t say a word, just looked sheepish and ashamed, but honestly, Liam couldn’t be bothered to care. They would apologize to him the next day, and he would accept it. But it was going to remain in his memory for quite some time, for sure.

At least they had the sense not to argue, just grabbed their stuff and went towards the door, guilt oozing from their postures.

Scott looked at the scene clearly downcast, but he also realized that the last thing Liam needed was dragging this unfortunate situation any longer. So he threw Liam another apologetic look, said goodbye to Liam’s parents and took his leave.

That left Liam with Theo and his parents. Apparently Theo realized the awkwardness of the situation, because he cleared his throat, clearly getting ready to disappear too.

“Well then,…” He shrugged. “I guess I’ll just…”

Suddenly, Liam’s mom spoke, surprising everybody in the room, possibly herself included.

“Your name is Theo, right?”

“Yes,” replied Theo, clearly confused why she was talking to him.

She stood up from the armchair she had been sitting in. “I’m not sure I understood everything correctly, this supernatural stuff is still unclear to me. But I think I got the gist of what happened.” She began, looking directly at the chimera. “And if I did, then…” She cleared her throat then and finished honestly: “Theo, thank you.”

Theo stilled, at first not really getting her words. He knew the meaning, obviously, but never did he expect to be at the receiving end of such an honest gratitude. So Theo had no idea how to react.

“I… uh… no problem?” He tried awkwardly. Apparently it wasn’t the worst thing to say, because Liam’s mom just smiled at him warmly. Which was also something completely out of sorts of Theo.

Liam also looked at his mother in surprise, because he didn’t see that coming. But he didn’t mind, quite the contrary, such embarrassment was a good look on Theo. Also, Liam was grateful too. Somehow he hadn’t felt the strength to tell anybody about his problems, and maybe Theo didn’t do it in the most elegant way possible, but still…  Not to forget that he also basically kicked those guys asses for him, which was uncharacteristically chivalrous of the chimera. Of course, it was possible that he just wanted an excuse to punch something, but Liam doubted that was true.

“Would you like to stay for dinner today, Theo?” Liam’s mother asked again, his heart telling Theo that she earnestly wanted him to agree.

And that was a tempting offer for Theo, especially since he hadn’t eaten many warm meals recently. And ‘many’ was a nice euphemism for ‘basically none’, since he usually just ~~stole~~ bought stuff from the gas station. Either way, his stomach almost howled at the sheer mention of a home-made meal. That was something Theo hadn’t had since… well, never, actually. Even when his parents were alive, they weren’t really the cooking type. Or the caring type. Or the sober type, for that matter.

Theo glanced at Liam before making any decision, though. And Liam looked like he couldn’t comprehend his mother’s decision in the slightest, completely struck by the idea of Theo eating at the same table as him. His mouth hung open a bit, and that was enough for Theo to reach a decision.

“Thank you, but I have to get going. I have somewhere I need to be soon.” Replied Theo politely, and nodded his head in lieu of saying goodbye. Liam’s mother didn’t need the werewolf hearing to notice that it was a lie, but she decided not to call him on it. Even though Theo came through the window, he decided to leave like regular people do, so he went to the door. When he was about to reach for the door handle, he felt somebody grab his forearm.

Theo turned around to find Liam staring at him intently.

“Stay?” Asked Liam tentatively, not letting go of Theo. “I’d really like you to,” added Liam more decisively. His heartbeat didn’t skip.

Theo looked at Liam’s hand at his forearm. It felt warm and nice. Theo felt like he should break the hold, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Liam’s grip was firm, but not threatening. Not forcing him to stay against his will. Just… keeping him from going away, offering, but not demanding. Liam’s eyes were also focused on the place where their skin touched. Liam was holding on to Theo too long for it _not_ to mean something and the more time passed, the more he became aware of this fact. And yet, his fingers remained curled around Theo’s arm while he waited for the answer.

Theo moved his eyes slowly towards Liam’s face, briefly stopping at his lips. He knew Liam took notice of that slip, and yet the beta didn’t comment on it. Maybe because he was looking at Theo’s lips too, realized the chimera.

Theo cleared his throat, breaking the impasse.

“Okay, I’ll stay,” he heard himself say.

Liam didn’t immediately let go of his arm; instead, he slid his hand down to Theo’s fingers and only then he reluctantly broke the contact, leaving Theo with goosebumps all over his body.

“Good.” Came the reply from Liam.

Their eyes were still on each other.

Liam’s lips widened in a warm smile and Theo’s heart fluttered.

 

 

 

 

And the dinner was insanely delicious.  


End file.
